1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the field of medical care products. More particularly, it pertains to the area of medical hardware and specifically, a support assembly for an upright pole that itself may support various medical devices such as intravenous bags, blood monitors, nurse notification devices and blood pressure equipment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Inpatient medical care has traditionally been confined to the hospital. Hospitals have large storage areas and thus there was no need for medical hardware to be collapsible and it was stored in its fully extended geometry. All that has since changed. With higher hospital care costs, hospital fixed expenses have been forced to be minimized and storage area has been converted to bed space. This requires hospital hardware to be stored in smaller spaces and extreme hardship has been encountered in that fully extended hardware is not only difficult to store in a confined area but substantial damage is caused to the hardware under these conditions.
In addition, there has been a surge in the development of small, economic treatment facilities in an effort to minimize fixed expenses. These small treatment facilities have little storage area and the hardware is required to be capable of confined storage.
Further, the median age of the United States population is on the increase. This has resulted in more elderly people and concomitantly, a greater need for medical care. The government has been instrumental in attempting to decrease hospital and medical care coverage and this has resulted in private efforts to conduct medical treatment in the home. Home treatment necessitates the transport of medical hardware via automobile and, these factors have urged the development of collapsible medical hardware.